Day by unchanging day, life goes on the same. Coronavirus stories.

There’s an odd kind of “Groundhog Day” feel to life at the moment, especially as we continue to have a run of mostly sunny mornings. The alarm rings, you hit snooze a couple of times because there is no real hurry to get the day started as you aren’t going anywhere, you get up and organise some breakfast, checking the news which continues as gloomy as ever, with more deaths, more accounts of how the government messed up, and no suggestion of an imminent end to the whole business. 

Some of the news reports are particularly depressing, such as this report of people in the UK living whole families to a room and sharing bathroom and kitchen facilities with other similar but unrelated families or groups of strangers in the same house.

Also there are reports like this one about southern states of America where the African-American communities are being hit disproportionally hard by the virus.

How is it that in the 21st century people are still living this way in two wealthy countries.

Then there are the stories of fear and ignorance. Apparently in Egypt the residents of a village in he Nile Delta tried to prevent the burial of a physician who had died from the Covid-19. They were afraid that burying him in their village might spread the contagion. Security and health officials tried to persuade the villagers to allow it to go ahead but in the end they had to call the police in and the crowd was dispersed using tear gas.

We have our own local stories of people doing silly things like going out hiking on potentially difficult or dangerous terrain. A woman went walking on Blackstone Edge, near Littleborough, ostensibly a good way of getting her daily exercise while avoiding meeting other people. She injured her leg and ended up needing to be rescued by the Oldham Mountain Rescue Team and the Northwest Ambulance Service, all needing to observe special safety protocol in the current circumstances. Oh, boy!

Some stories are more uplifting, like this one about “pop-up bike lanes” in Germany, making the bike lanes wider so that more people still able to go to work could do so by bike. I love the German efficiency in this story. “The council said it had used removable tape and mobile signs to mark out the expanded lanes, which can be removed when the current restrictions on movement are lifted.” Apologies to any Germans for the stereotyping.

I am not really as despondent as I might sound. In fact, Phil and I continue doing much of the stuff we usually do, just without the things that involve going out and about and interacting with others.

We still manage to go out for long walks in the continuing sunshine, even though the temperatures vary from pleasantly warm to rather chilly.

We keep in virtual touch with friends and family and so far all seem to be well.

And we continue to enjoy our food. On the menu today is a small serving of a rice and prawns dish taken from the freezer, some salmon slices marinated in herbs, some roasted vegetables and, as usual, some salad. All good.

 Life does go on. Stay safe and well, everyone!